John Vincent

Real Name:

John Vincent Imbragulio

Profile:

American producer and record label executive, born 3 October 1925 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi; died 4 February 2000 in Jackson, Mississippi. Founder of two labels, Champion (in the early 1950s) and Ace Records (3) (1955).

Vincent sold Rock-Ola jukeboxes in the 1940s. In the early 1950s he opened a record store and formed his own label, Champion. In 1953 he signed for Los Angeles-based label Specialty to find talent in New Orleans.

In 1955, Vincent left Specialty to found Ace Records (3). In 1962 he made a distribution deal with Vee Jay Records, but Vee Jay went bankrupt in 1966, and Ace was deactivated. Vincent activated the label in 1971 with a limited success, which lead him to get involved in various other enterprises, including a restaurant.

In the early 1990s he returned to music business, and he reoriented Ace to the contemporary soul-blues market. Vincent sold the Ace catalogue to British Music Collection International Ltd. in 1997 but started a new label, Avanti.